Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined

Monday, 10 April 2017

I'm taking part in another blog tour - yay! - and this time, it's for Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman. I was sent a copy of the book by Scholastic UK in exchange for an honest review, and I ended up reading the novel in a day. On this particular day, I should have been revising (however, I'm going with the theory that reading is educational so I have nothing to feel guilty about, right?), but no matter how much I told myself I needed to do my college work and stop procrastinating, I just couldn't put the book down. I adored it.

Everything Beautiful Is Not ruined is a story about Ingrid, a teenager who's been sent to a wilderness survival camp. A place where addicts, runaways and people with secrets try to rebuild themselves, Ingrid can't figure out why she's here or how to fit in - and she's not even sure if she wants to.

No matter how hard she tries to focus on the present, the physical and mental challenges can't distract her - the past continues to haunt her dreams, and with counsellors telling her she needs to be more open about her feelings, her problems become harder to ignore.

Ingrid only needs to make it through two weeks. She just needs to prove to her mum that she has the strength to pursue her dreams. But with every passing day becoming less and less bearable, she's not sure that she can, after all.

Favourite quote:

'My demon is you. My best and worst is about you: how I need you and fear for you, how I fear for myself if I lose you, how I have let myself be defined by you.'Favourite character:

Definitely Ingrid! She'd been through similar things to me, and so for that reason, I felt like I was able to connect with her a lot. Whenever she felt sad and angry and conflicted, so did I - this book was an emotional rollercoaster for the both of us. She had so much resilience and courage, and I think that there's a part of her character that everyone can resonate with.

3 words to describe the book:Beautiful, poignant, epic (so epic, in fact, that it's now officially one of my favourite young adult books).Rating:

✮✮✮✮✮/✮✮✮✮✮

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined isn't just a story about surviving in the wilderness. It's a book about perseverance and self-growth, and finding the willpower and resilience to succeed even when it seems like the odds are stacked against you. Everyone should read it. It's powerful, and will make your heart break in places, but there are moments that will make you smile, too. It deserves all the stars and so many more - and the backstory that's woven within Ingrid's time at camp is so raw.There are still lots of spaces on the blog tour left before it ends, so if you want to read other reviews of the book, here are where to find them: